Fading Fast
by xxClueless1xx
Summary: Danny has gained some startling news from Clockwork, and wonders how much time he has left. As a human, and as a ghost. Rated K . R&R you guys!


**Hey you guys! What's up? I'm here with another one-shot that I thought up in my spare time! It's a little bit confusing – even to me, so uh…good luck. I just had to get this out; this stupid plot bunny has been biting me in the butt since I got this idea. I hope you like it and….Enjoy! ;)**

**Disclaimer: Isn't it pretty obvious that I don't own Danny Phantom?**

**-xxClueless1xx**

-line break-

_"What do you mean?" a small, confused voice echoed in the tower._

_"Danny, you are Phantom only for a short amount of time. This is only a short intervention until you pass onto Heaven or Hell." The Master of Time said, not turning around to see who he was talking to._

_"But, I thought that I was going to be like this," the floating figure gestured at itself "and my human half – half ghost, until my human half was killed. Because, obviously, you can't kill a ghost right?" the voice asked._

_"You are correct, a ghost cannot be killed, only its existence ended. And that would take a great deal of energy from humans to do. But, your human half will begin to fade, and, in time, you're ghost half will too. Your soul will then be passed on to its last stage of existence." The wise ghost replied._

_"But, what am I supposed to do to pass all the way through?" The boy, Danny asked, stepping forward out of the shadows._

_ It was then that the Time Master turned around to face the boy, looking into his glowing eyes. He turned back into a child once again before he spoke. _

_"You must finish what you started when you died." Clockwork said, his array of watches covering his wrists ticking relentlessly._

_"But, Clockwork, what did I start?" the teenager asked, but the ghost was already gone._

_ He grasped at the air, hoping to feel something – some sign that the ghost was still there. But all he felt was nothing._

Nothing. He still only felt nothing. He was empty ever since he had told Sam and Tucker. They hadn't shunned him, but he could tell that they were afraid for when exactly there friend was going to be supposedly wiped off the face of the Earth.

Him? He was scared out of his wits. Knowing that any day he could begin to fade into the air, and then be gone _forever. _But, wasn't it possible to come back as a ghost? No, that was what he was doing now. Clockwork had just explained that ghosts only came back to "finish what they had started". But, that was the problem. Danny didn't know what he had started.

He grasped for an answer of some sort, but he always ended up empty-handed. He needed to see Clockwork. He needed to know what he needed to do.

Having made up his mind, he stood up from his bed, and summoned his Phantom form. The brilliant light formed at his waist and he dove through his room floor and into the basement. He pressed his index finger onto the finger pad that his Dad had just installed yesterday, and flew into the never-ending realm of the Ghost Zone.

He floated past a few ghost's layers, into the swirling radioactive green ectoplasm of the Zone. He pulled out his hand-drawn map of the Ghost Zone, and followed it until he approached Skulker's Island. He always had to be careful here, if he let his guard down for even a millisecond, he could be trapped in an ecto-net.

He watched the hovering island with a careful eye as he flew past, careful not to make a sound. He let out a breath that he hadn't known that he had been holding when he finally passed it by. He kept floating by the map's directions until he approached a looming tower covered in clocks and watches. Clockwork's Tower.

He flew up to the top window and phased in, only to see Clockwork hovering in the middle of the room, looking at different time lines. Danny cringed when he saw that he was looking at the old Dan timeline. He knew that Clockwork was aware of his presence, so he didn't need to say anything to the older ghost.

"Everything is as it should be, Danny." The ghost's voice suddenly rang out in the hollow castle.

Danny wasn't exactly sure what to say to that, and his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. It really got under his skin when the Time Master spoke in riddles like this that only made situations more confusing.

"But, can't we do something about this? I mean, can't we stop this?" he asked, hating how small and scared his voice sounded.

"There is nothing that can be done." Clockwork said, turning slowly to face the teenager.

"But, I don't want to die yet." Danny said, hardly loud enough to be a whisper.

Clockwork was hardly caught off-guard by this, but nonetheless, his eyebrows did jump up in surprise. He kneeled down, and put his hand on the boy, whose head was bowed. His white hair shimmered in the light and the elderly ghost looked at him, asking the boy silently to look at him.

The boy got this seemingly telepathic message and looked into Clockwork's red eyes sadly. Clockwork's now adult face looked into Danny's endless green eyes and he spoke.

"This is supposed to happen, Danny. I know this is hard, but this happens to almost every ghost in the Ghost Zone." He said, squeezing Danny's shoulders.

"Then why didn't it happen to you?" he asked.

Clockwork sighed; he had known that this was going to happen. But, this information was a lot for a teenager to grasp, and he knew how it was going to turn out. Danny would be confused and try so hard to understand, that he would send his brain into overdrive. Clockwork had to choose his words carefully.

"I had a very strange life and death," he said "I was a clock maker in the early 1900's in England and I fixed and produced watches and wall clocks." He said, looking up as if recalling an old memory.

Danny gave an odd chuckle at this, it was pretty reasonable that Clockwork had been a clock maker and fixer when he had been alive. So _that _was why he was the Time Master ghost now. He had had lots of experience with time during his life.

"But, one day one of Big Ben's boilers got too hot, and the whole thing exploded when I, along with a few of my employees, were inside. We all died." He took a breath before continuing.

"The people who died with me are my Observants that are usually here with me, watching the time stream. But, they were never as skillful as me, so they were dubbed more of my helpers; my Observants." He said.

"I didn't pass through because it is my job to watch the time stream and make sure that nothing goes wrong as time continues on." He finished.

"But, I never heard of Big Ben exploding…" Danny mused aloud.

"That is because I went into the time stream and fixed the boilers from getting too hot." Clockwork said, taking his hands off Danny's shoulders and standing up.

"Oh." Danny said absentmindedly, clearly pondering something. "But, I still don't know what it is that I started." He said.

"I cannot help you with that. That is for the ghost itself to figure out. Assistance would take the process a longer amount of time." Clockwork said, glancing at the time stream once again.

Danny frowned; clearly not liking the information he had just been given. But, he began to back away towards the window and eventually looked up to the ghost.

"Uh, thanks Clockwork. I should probably go now… Uh, bye." Danny said, running a hand through his snowy hair before he flew out of the tower.

Clockwork's eyes lingered on the window that the boy had just phased through before turning back to the boy's personal time line.

"All is as it should be."

-line break-

Danny flew back out of the portal into the lab. He was too deep in thought to even look around before he changed back into his human form. Big mistake. His parents were right there, staring at him, gaping.

He immediately snapped back into his senses when he realized that there was someone there and backed away out of reflexes. He was half-expecting them to start shooting at him, but they never did. They just stood there, staring.

He shuffled on his feet a bit, trying to avoid their eyes. He hated it when people stared at him, it made him feel awkward. He gasped when he saw them shuffling towards him, and he checked their hands to make sure that they weren't holding a scalpel or anything. He instinctively backed away, and was about to bolt when they suddenly pulled him into a tight hug.

At first he was tense, but he quickly relaxed when it finally got through to him that they weren't going to hurt him. This was a long hug, but it didn't feel awkward to any of them. After a moment they all pulled back, and Danny was surprised to see his Mom wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She almost never cried, he hadn't ever seen her do it before.

He wanted to comfort her but he wasn't quite sure how. Jack put his arm around his wife's shoulder and hugged her side against his, calming her down after the shock of finding out such a big secret. Eventually, all the tears were dried and his Mother pulled her hands down and held out her arms.

He ran to the welcoming gesture, hating that he was tearing up himself. The three of them held each other again, glad that there were no more secrets in their house. His Mother stroked his black hair and murmured something inaudible. This hug ended and they all looked at each other. It seemed like some kind of silent evaluation, and eventually Maddie spoke.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she whispered.

It was then that Danny noticed Jazz standing in the doorway. She seemed to know that he was silently calling her over for help, and she walked next to him, jeans sweeping the floor as she walked.

"What about all those times when you said 'Let's dissect Phantom!' or 'No, no! Let's rip him apart molecule by molecule!'" Jazz said, mocking her parent's voices.

Her parents looked down shamefully and his Father spoke. "I hunted my only son."

Danny immediately jumped in here, not wanting anyone to feel the guilt of his own mistake. He snapped his head up and looked at his Father's downcast expression, his Mother shared the look.

"You guys, you didn't know, and it wasn't your fault that I was known as the 'Number one most wanted ghost in Amity Park and the Ghost Zone.'" He said, still feeling bad for earning those titles. "It was my fault anyway." He said.

His Dad's face immediately brightened at this cheer up, and his Mother even offered a small smile. He smiled back, and he watched Jazz smile, satisfied, and walked away silently. He knew that she wanted to give them there space right now and-

It was then that Danny realized his parent's given him an odd look, and he cocked his head slightly to the side.

"What?" he asked with confusion clear in his voice.

"Is that normal?" he Mother asked, gesturing at him.

He looked down and saw that his body was translucent; all colors could still be identified, but it was obvious that he was fading; fast. He emitted a sharp gasp and pulled his hand up to look at it. He could faintly see the lab floor through it and his eyes immediately widened. This must've been what Clockwork was talking about his human half fading. Was telling his parents that he was Phantom part of this 'business' that he needed to get done before he passed through?

He let his hand swing back down at his side and looked at his parents standing before him. He sighed, knowing that he was going to have to explain everything that Clockwork had told him. He knew that they would need to know.

"Maybe, you should sit down for this."

-line break-

That had been five days ago. Now, I was hardly visible, and I was fading unbelievably fast. My ghost half was getting more and more transparent by the day, but it was nowhere near as fast as my human half. My human half had gone from translucent to nearly invisible in five days. Anyone around me could only see a faint outline of my body, and hardly any features were noticeable. I knew that my days were numbered.

I sat down at my place at the kitchen table, not caring that no one else was around. I stared at the red and white table cloth, identifying every single stitch and piece of thread. I was thinking hard, but then I saw my whole body go invisible for a split second, and a strange sensation came over me. It felt as if I was there, but I was somewhere else at the same time. Like, I was in-between two destinations, my spirit torn between them.

I gasped for a breath from the odd feeling in my heart, and felt the sensation consume me once again. I could feel myself fading again, pupils getting smaller as I was running out of breath. I was dying for the second time in my life, but this time was strangely more peaceful.

This time, I was prepared.

The feeling got stronger and stronger and, before I was faded completely, I remembered one last thing that my Mother had said.

"Wherever you are, and whatever happens to you, we'll be with you, Danny."

-line break-

**I know, I know, that was like really weird and kind of confusing, but I just needed to get that out. Constructive reviews are welcome, but no flames please. I rather be built up then torn down. I love you guys, and thanks for your support. ;)**

**-xxClueless1xx**


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